As I’ve written about three times now, this is my blog for the period of time while I’m in Nagoya, Japan, from August 29, 2008 to December 20, 2008. It is intended mostly for family and any friends I’ve decided to invite.

Right now, I’m setting the (hopefully) reasonable goal of posting to this blog at least once a week.

At the moment, I’m still in the preparation stage. I sent in the paperwork for my visa this afternoon and hope to see it some time around the end of next week. I had to wait this long because the university in Japan, Nanzan University, had to send me a Certificate of Eligibility, basically a document explaining why I was in Japan, for how long, and that yes, someone had made sure I wasn’t a free-loading criminal.

I also received my home-stay information. I’m going to be living with a young couple and their two-year-old son. I had all but requested a family with children on my home-stay application, so, needless to say, I’m pretty pleased. Expect that regrets will be forthcoming. *sigh* At least now I can decide what I’m going to bring them for gifts. I just remembered now that I might want to bring my former host-family, the Asakas, something as well. Maybe something from Nagoya will do.

Otherwise, I’m mostly studying kanji (the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) and figuring out what to bring with me.

P.S. The picture used in my header is one from my first trip to Japan in 2004. It was taken by my mom on the pedestrian bridge in Shinjuku, near Lumine and Tokyu Hands. I’m hoping to replace it with something a little more high-res once I get there.